Goodbye July, Goodbye.

Thought this would be funny as I was just prattling on to someone the other day about being flagged for using the word "terrorism" on Facebook. David Rees is brilliant and I’m glad that this cartoon has now officially premiered online. After reading the comic for years now and again and seeing a play, aptly titled, Get Your War On here in Austin, I knew that it would make a perfect introduction to my last entry for the hot ass month of July.

Speaking of hot asses, mine was very much on fire today, …and I’m not just talking about the normal level of enticement by my ass, I mean the mercury got up to 101 degrees today down in South Austin where I call home and the heat index, which is what the “weatherman” says it actually “feels like” outside, made it seem closer to 107. August, will of course be even hotter and it appears that for the next week, temps will climb and stay in the land of triple-digits for the next 7 to 10 days. It makes me sick to think of what life will be like when I’m fifty and the summers get so hot that people are forced to work from home, tires melt, water evaporates, and chromosomes are inexorable altered for future generations. It kind of reminds me of that Twilight Episode entitled The Midnight Sun.

Here’s Rod Serling’s introduction:

“The word that Mrs. Bronson is unable to put into the hot, still, sodden air is ‘doomed,’ because the people you’ve just seen have been handed a death sentence. One month ago, the Earth suddenly changed its elliptical orbit and in doing so began to follow a path, which gradually, moment by moment, day by day, took it closer to the Sun. And all of man’s little devices to stir up the air are now no longer luxuries - they happen to be pitiful and panicky keys to survival. The time is five minutes to twelve, midnight. There is no more darkness. The place is New York City and this is the eve of the end, because even at midnight it’s high noon, the hottest day in history, and you’re about to spend it in the Twilight Zone.”

Well at least California knows what to do. They’re suing the EPA.
That’s right, they’ve filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for “ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.” They wouldn’t be alone and this wouldn’t be the first time. As many as 12 to 18 other states have filed similar lawsuits on more than one occasion calling for the resignation of the EPA Administrator, Stephen Johnson and accusing the organization of violating the Clean Air Act.

Why would Mr. Johnson violate laws and mandates for cleaner air and water in the U.S.? Just follow the money.

Anywho, to be totally honest, I’ve spent a large portion of my time this summer indoors exactly for the above stated reason. I wake up, usually in a dark, cooled home, cringe at a warm shower, get in my hot car, ridden with guilt about even turning the key, blast my way to work, and remain inside for eight hours while I watch the asphalt and the people walking on it bake. I’ve even started going to a gym and running on a treadmill because as much as I’d like to think running outside at 4 o’clock in the afternoon is the ultimate in being a hardcore member of the Y chromosome world, it’s just really become quite dangerous.

Besides, you can still be hardcore indoors, right? I mean, yesterday, on my day off I answered the call of a very good friend of mine who just took the helm at a local theatre company here in town called Salvage Vanguard Theatre that was not left in the best of condition, to say the very least. He needed some sort of archived video clip of a play my theatre company, the St Idiot Collective, put on last August at SVT’s space on Manor Road, for a grant submission. I immediately jumped onto my computer, plugged some wires into shit, and put together a two minute, rrrrrrough, ohhhh so rough trailer for the show and threw it at him across the ether into his computer. I also posted it on You Tube. It’s called The Rainbow Family of the Serendipitous Now and it would be the last show we all would work on together before taking a hiatus.

Have a look:


Oh, I almost forgot, look what finally came in the mail…
That’s right, my very own Obama car magnet. I haven’t actually decided where to put it on my car, or maybe I’m thinking of a way to quantify my emotional state when I find out that someone’s realized it’s a magnet and stolen it. Until then, it’ll have to stay cool and undamaged by the threats of the outside world, sort of like our next President, Barack Obama. BAM, SUCKA! WHAT?

I’m flying up to New York City in two weeks to visit the plethora of friends I know cohabitating in places like Manhattan, Brooklyn, and even New Jersey. I’ve been to NYC several times, but not since 9/11, so I’m expecting it to be on par with my visit to post-Katrina New Orleans last year, just way more intense. Especially with the weather. When I was younger, my parents sent me upstate every summer to escape the heat of the inner city and let me just say this, that area, is the SHIZNIT and everyone living in NYC should be putting money away to buy real estate up there to escape to so the heat doesn't make you want to kill someone. No shit, it's absolutely gorgeous and possibly one of the best kept secrets in this country with the world's attention aimed at NYC. While visiting the hot, hot city, I will do many things. The list thus far includes, but is not limited to: The Met, The MOMA, David Byrnes Installation in Battery Park followed by the Staten Island Ferry, check out the waterfalls, and see a play my friends are in during the New York Fringe Fest. There is also talk of a comeback from my basketball retirement for a one-time-only, West coast v. East coast battle somewhere in Brooklyn on Friday night, but I have to buy high tops first. My ankle deserves better. Suggestions?

This Saturday, I will go back to the IMAX to view The Dark Knight once more with friends as it pushes it's way well past the $300 million dollar mark amassing the economic and mythic strength to de-throne the number 1 money making movie of all time. Titanic. This time, I will be taking notes to write a full review when I get back home. I realized two nights ago, that the movie had been carrying some weight with me since I saw it last. Interviews and commentaries heard on NPR throughout the week about the way the world is spinning, intermingled inside my head with thoughts of Christopher Nolan’s fatalistic interpretation of Batman and I totally spat out a very dark and dystopian comparison of his new film as metaphor for the very uncertain world we live in now, while out with friends at a bar the other night. It definitely made for some interesting conversation. To be totally honest, I really enjoyed talking about the stresses of pushing through the first years of the 21st century, but it felt like our conversation ended in stalemate, with no pragmatic answer for hope in the near future. I digress, too much.

Other than that, tonight, before I head to dreamy land, I will put that last ‘X’ on my calendar signifying that it’s been 65 days since my last cigarette. “How’s it going,” you ask? For the first time in my adult life, I FEEL good. I feel free from the almost 600 additives that people in white coats are getting paid exuberant amounts of money to synthesize. Additives that make me, ... that force me, psychosomatically, to want nothing more than to burn the aforementioned additives, turning them into very toxic chemicals you never hear about and since you're not actually buying the shit you inhale, the FDA could care less. I've given ten years of my life and money to big tobacco so that I can slowly kill myself, fuck my body chemistry, damage my genes, and do God knows what to people around me. So "how's it going," you say? Fucking great!